This invention relates to a retractable battery tray device for movably carrying a back-up battery source in close proximity to an equipment cabinet structure.
Cabinets or enclosures are employed by the telecommunications industry to house and protect telecommunications equipment from external environmental conditions. Such equipment cabinets are typically designed to accommodate a limited or specified assortment of equipment without excessive additional space. One form of equipment cabinet employs a "split-base" design such that a generally rectilinear cabinet structure is mounted on top of two spaced apart supporting base or pedestal structures. Each pedestal structure may also contain an incoming or an outgoing primary telecommunications cable or numerous service lines.
Modern telecommunications equipment is highly electronics based and increasingly micro-chip based. Such electronics and micro-chip based equipment typically requires a constant power supply to maintain volatile electronic memories and other electronic components in working condition. As the use of such electronic and micro-chip based telecommunications equipment increases, the ramifications of power failure to such equipment become more dramatic.
Accidental power failures or outages are a prevalent cause of system failure. One way to overcome the power outage problem is to provide back-up batteries at each equipment location in order to provide a source of back-up electrical power.
An additional problem arises with telecommunications equipment cabinets, such that little additional space is provided in which to install such back-up batteries. Moreover, heavy duty back-up battery sources which can provide power for longer periods of time are commonly very large and quite heavy weighing up to 700 pounds. However, storing such batteries inside of an equipment cabinet can put the telecommunications equipment stored inside of the cabinet at risk should the back-up batteries leak, emit fumes or explode.
It would be desirable to provide a back-up battery housing attachable to, but separate from, the equipment cabinet to overcome the above-noted problems. Furthermore, it would be desirable to provide a battery housing having a supporting structure which can accommodate the substantial weight of the batteries, provide ready access to the batteries for servicing or replacement and permit the batteries to be contained in the housing separately from the equipment housed inside of the equipment cabinet.